Healthy Lunch Ideas – Soft Boiled Egg Spring Salad

In one of my many moments of voices in my head, I was overwhelmed with the question of “how can you make a salad sexy?” Which sounds like a perfectly logical question to ask. No? Considering most salads look like something that was raked up after a lawnmower, I decided to assemble a Spring salad that not only tasted fantastic, but looked damn sexy too. But I also wanted this to be one of those healthy lunch ideas that you could easily throw together. A not so simple task for a seemingly simple thing like a salad.

Where to start with all this sexiness? That is the question.

Well, I’ve been working on healthy lunch ideas for this other project that I’m working on. I’m also trying to come up with healthy lunch ideas for actual lunches to have around the house…for me. Since my lunches usually consist of pb&j, bits and pieces of leftovers or a handful of Hershey kisses, I thought it was about time to clean up my act.

There’s lots of produce coming in now, being that it is Spring and all. So I knew that would be going into this duh – Spring salad. You know, stuff like radishes, asparagus and fava beans. But I couldn’t bring myself to put these gorgeous ingredients into a bowl of just lettuce. How boring and predictable! I started playing with the idea of making a grain salad recipe (especially since I like them, but rarely end up making them). So what’s that hiding under all those yummy veggies? Forbidden rice. (What says sexy more than something with the word forbidden in it’s name?) Forbidden rice is that deep, dark black rice that was once only allowed to pass the lips of the Emperors of China.

Now I’ve got the base of a beautiful Spring salad covered, but what about the topping? No, not the dressing. I already knew that would be a light lemony vinaigrette. I’m talking about that WOW factor. That thing that would make this salad really stand out. (Not that I wasn’t already miles ahead of that bowl of grass clippings mentioned earlier.) Then it hit me – a soft boiled egg. That golden oozy yolk mixing in with those bright vegetables and dark black rice. Not to mention the creaminess it would give to the vinaigrette. I understand if you need to step away for a moment.

This salad can be served warm or at room temperature, your choice. Of course, if you make the eggs ahead of time, just re-warm them by running them under hot tap water. You definitely want that yolk all gooey and oozy. Now if you’re not too keen on the whole idea of undercooked eggs, I’ve got a couple of suggestions for you . First, you could just make hard boiled eggs then crumble them up and toss onto the salad. You won’t get that creamy mix of egg and tangy dressing, but it will add to the overall flavor of the salad. The other option is to get your hands on some of those pasteurized in the shell eggs. They seem to be pretty available all over now. Then you don’t have any worries about adding that soft boiled egg to the salad.

Shave the asparagus into thin strips, using a vegetable peeler, and toss the strips into the salad.

Cut off the asparagus tips and toss those in as well.

Sprinkle the top of the salad with the radishes.

For the Dressing

Add all of the dressing ingredients into a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Pour the dressing over the top of the salad and gently toss.

Peel and add egg to top of salad.

Cut or smash the egg to release the yolk.

Top with freshly ground black pepper.

Serve.

Notes

Soft Boiled Eggs - I use the America's Test Kitchen method. Bring ½ inch of water to a boil in a large pot. Add 6 cold eggs into the pot. Cover and cook for 6½ minutes. Immediately remove the eggs from the pot and put them into an ice bath to chill. Peel and re-warm by holding egg under hot tap water.

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Welcome to My Man's Belly! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the site or if there's a recipe you'd like to see here. Have a great day.

Pamela, I just came across your site and I’m so happy that I did. You’re fun and make me smile :). Radishes. Fava beans. I’m in! I recently had a dream about fava beans (what does that mean?! They were growing out of my ears…so weird), so I think I’ll just have to make this bad boy! Thanks!

Not too sure about that fava bean dream…but based on some of the really weird dreams I have, I don’t have much room to say anything But I do think that might be a sign that you were meant to make this salad. ENJOY!!!

Good heavens, this looks magnificent! I’ve always been a bit squeamish about eggs on my salad (it’s a greens and runny yolks “thing”) – but this? I will now try greens with runny yolk. Your food photography is outstanding.

I get what you’re saying about runny yolks and greens. About the only thing that saves it for me is when it’s a frisee salad with loads of bacon lardons in it. The runny yolk with the rice and slightly tangy dressing in this recipe takes out the icky slime factor. ENJOY!!!

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